Atlas of Train Travel, The by JB Hollingsworth
Hard Cover w/ dust jacket
192 pages
Copyright 1980
CONTENTS
Introduction 7
Why Take the Train How Rail Comfort Developed Exploring the World by Train Railway Nostalgia: Museums and Revivals How to Travel by Train
Great Britain 21
Locomotion and All That God's Wonderful Railway Rush Hours in the South
North America 39
Overland Route No Choo-Choos to Chattanooga Polar Bears and Kicking Horses
Continental Europe 61
Crocodiles and Christies The Immortal `Orient Express' Swiss Rails (by Robert M Tyrrell) French Connections
Soviet Union 91
Writing on the `Russia'
Scandinavia 101
Where the Sun Never Sets
South America 107
The Highest Rails of All (by Ken Mills and John Snell)
India and Pakistan 131
`You Want Steam? I Put Steam On' `Chicken Bones Are "On" Sir' (based on `To Europe for Steam' Newsletter)
Southern Africa 155
Steam Hotel
Australasia 161
Perth to the Bluff (by John Snell)
Southeast Asia 173
Surabaja to Bangkok (by John Snell)
Japan 180
People-Packers, Bullet Trains and Fiery Dragons
China 185
The Steaming Rails of China
DUST JACKET INTRODUCTION
This atlas of train travel is intended to induce the reader into forsaking modern expressways and airplanes in favor of railway trains, an older and more dignified method of transport. One generation ago we began to be seduced by air travel; two generations ago the automobile began to allure us ; but only three generations ago impish doubt as to the proper way in which a gentleman and his lady should travel had scarcely begun to arise - one must take the train !
It is not the aim of this volume to provide a detailed timetable or directory of various routes, but instead to describe the flavor of rail travel in most of the habitable portions of the globe ; in fact 32 countries in all five continents are visited. The routes followed range in length from several thousand miles taking several weeks, to one or two hundred miles covered in only a few hours; they go from north of the arctic circle to the southernmost point reachable by public passenger train.
Train travel is experienced in all its variety - for example, a German train is admired for its comfort, speed and chronometric time-keeping, while a Paraguayan one is equally recommended for its steam-age relic of a locomotive and museum-piece carriages, even if its schedule is not to be taken too seriously.
No attempt has been made to cover the nuts and bolts of the railway scene ; instead the aim is to convey the character of rail travel in different parts of the world from the sumptuous and smooth to the crowded and inefficient. The descriptions and tales herein, are accompanied by 250 illustrations and relevant maps.
